Judges 20- Unwise, Presumptuous Actions Hurt Everyone

Last week I mentioned that there has been a group in the church whose been working on the vision of this church. The vision that we have chosen is, “Together, offering hope through saving faith in Jesus”. Think about what this congregation could accomplish if we all lived according to this mission!

Now imagine that instead of pursuing something like this, we pursued the opposite. Judges 19-21 gives us a picture of what it looks like when God’s people accomplish the opposite of, “Together, offering hope through saving faith in Jesus”. Instead of pursuing that noble mission together, every person in Israel is pursuing what is right in their own eyes and together they are doing great harm!

The theme in Judges 19 was: ‘Sinful individuals, living in sinful families, who live in a sinful community’. We saw that sin cannot be dealt with through temporal fleshly means. No, the sinner needs to repent, submit to the LORD, and obey His Word to be restored. (21:25)

The nation Israel was not doing this and to illustrate this we were introduced to a Levite and his concubine. Both of these individuals were sinners. For example, this Levite had walked away from his inheritance and was not in a biblical marriage. We also saw that his concubine had been unfaithful.

After this, she returned to her fathers home, but after four months has passed the man went to get her. (1) In Judges 19:3 it appeared that things were improving, “Then her husband arose and went after her, to speak kindly to her and bring her back. He had with him his servant and a couple of donkeys. And she brought him into her father's house. And when the girl's father saw him, he came with joy to meet him.”

At first, it appears like things are improving: the husband rises up and goes after her, he speaks kindly to her, his intends to bring her home, she brings him into her fathers house, and her father receives him with joy! You read this and assume that time alone can heal the damage done by sin, but as you continue to read Judges 19:4-9 you don’t see any spiritual remedies being applied to this situation, “And his father-in-law, the girl's father, made him stay, and he remained with him three days. So they ate and drank and spent the night there. And on the fourth day they arose early in the morning, and he prepared to go, but the girl's father said to his son-in-law, ‘Strengthen your heart with a morsel of bread, and after that you may go.’ So the two of them sat and ate and drank together. And the girl's father said to the man, ‘Be pleased to spend the night, and let your heart be merry.’ And when the man rose up to go, his father-in-law pressed him, till he spent the night there again. And on the fifth day he arose early in the morning to depart. And the girl's father said, ‘Strengthen your heart and wait until the day declines.’ So they ate, both of them. And when the man and his concubine and his servant rose up to depart, his father-in-law, the girl's father, said to him, ‘Behold, now the day has waned toward evening. Please, spend the night. Behold, the day draws to its close. Lodge here and let your heart be merry, and tomorrow you shall arise early in the morning for your journey, and go home.”

In these verses you read a lot about eating, drinking, and merriment, but you do not see that this couple has submitted to the LORD and are committed to obeying His Word. There is no repentance and drawing near to God. They do what we often do, they try to deal with sin through separation, wine, food, and limitless other things. These things have no power to deal with our enslavement to sin.

IMPORTANT: What these two individuals do in Judges 19 is what we see the whole community does in Judges 20. Judges 19 showed us the futility of worldly and fleshly solutions to deal with sin. Similarly Judges 20 shows that external religious observance cannot deal with sin if the heart is not surrendered to the LORD and His Word.

I have divided Judges 20 into three sections.

• Verses 1–17: Israel Acts on Emotions Rather Than Wisdom. (towards God and neighbor)

• Verses 18–28: Israel Appears To Seek God, but Something Is Missing.

• Verses 29–48: Israel Wins the Battle but Shows No Mercy.

Israel Acts On Emotions Rather Than Wisdom (1-17)

You can understand all the emotions and zeal in this text when you read what this Levite did to gather Israel together to respond to this injustice. (19:27-30) In response, a large army of 400,000 men came and was zealous to avenge the evil that had done in Israel. (Largest army recorded in Judges)

You can understand why, when they heard the Levites accusation against the men of Gibeah, that Israel would say to the tribe of Benjamin, “What evil is this that has taken place among you? Now therefore give up the men, the worthless fellows in Gibeah, that we may put them to death and purge evil from Israel.” (20:12-13)

And you can understand why, when Benjamin refuses to hand over these worthless fellows to be put to death, but instead gathers 26,700 men to fight against Israel, how Israel’s anger would have increased into a raging fury. (20:14-16)

Question: “If you were part of this 400,000 man army on this occasion, against a much smaller army, what would guide your emotions and actions?” (How has our culture responded?)

In moments like this our passions can lead us beyond justice and into sin. When Israel hears this man’s side of the story, and he left some important facts out, and they’re ready to go to war against their brothers- Benjamin. Judges 20 will illustrate the opposite of Ephesians 4:25-27, “Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil.”

A couple of years ago someone made me mad while I was driving and I wanted to call down fire upon him. (Luke 9:54) Then I read Proverbs 19:11 and it rebuked the way I handled that situation, “Good sense makes one slow to anger, and it is his glory to overlook an offense.” This verse showed me that I was not acting (inwardly or outwardly) according to biblical wisdom or in a prudent way. If biblical wisdom were ruling my heart, my emotions, and my thoughts, I would have responded according to James 3:13, “Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom.” (Since Israel does not know the Word of God, can anything good come from this situation?)

Judges 20 forces us to confront one of the hardest tensions that a believer will face, “How do you apply a verse like Proverbs 19:11 when there has been an injustice that demands action?” Or we could ask, “How can we not not seek to apply Proverbs 19:11 in situations like this because the consequences are so important?”

Proverbs 19:11 is a good verse to help regulate our passions when we have been wronged. In the Hebrew the word ‘overlook’ (ʿābar) does not mean: to pretend, or ignore, or to minimize evil (Prov.8:13), or to avoid confronting the injustice, or to let abusers go free. No, it means that when we confront injustice we will refuse to escalate the conflict, or retaliate beyond what justice demands, or to refuse to let our anger regarding the injustice to outpace our ability to apply biblical wisdom to that situation. Proverbs 19:11 would not say that the offense is to be overlooked; rather, it would have governed the spirit in which justice is pursued. It would keep justice from becoming uncontrolled vengeance like we see in Judges 20-21.

Proverbs 19:11 shapes how we pursue justice, not whether we will pursue justice, not whether we will purse it. It ensures that when an injustice has occurred, we will act, we will confront, we will protect the vulnerable, and we will hold lawless and wicked people accountable. But we will do it with godly wisdom and without losing sight of mercy. Proverbs 19:11 is a call to pursue justice with the pace, patience, and restraint that would reflect the heart of God. This is exactly what Israel will fail to do in Judges 20-21. (19:1,21:25)

Israel Appears To Seek God, But Something Is Missing (18-28)

When you read verses 18-28, like we saw in Judges 19:3-9, it appears that Israel is doing the right things, but things are more complicated than they appear. I see this complication in two ways. First, Israel keeps experiencing defeats after they do these things. Secondly, if this repentance is genuine, where is the mercy and compassion in the events that follow?

In Judges 20:1 Israel ‘assembled as one man to the LORD’. In Judges 20-21 you discover that Israel gathers together and they make vows, form plans, and they want the LORD to bless all this. What they’re doing is far different than what Israel did in Nehemiah’s day, “And all the people gathered as one man into the square before the Water Gate. And they told Ezra the scribe to bring the Book of the Law of Moses that the LORD had commanded Israel...and the ears of the people were attentive to the Book of the Law.” (Nehemiah 8:1-3)

In Judges 20:18 we read, “The people of Israel arose and went up to Bethel and inquired of God, ‘Who shall go up first for us to fight against the people of Benjamin?’ And the LORD said, ‘Judah shall go up first.’” Reading this, it would be easy to assume that victory has been assured by the LORD; however, the LORD does not promise them victory. When Judah goes up the next day they experience a crushing defeat, “The people of Benjamin came out of Gibeah and destroyed on that day 22,000 men of the Israelites.” (21)

After this defeat Israel takes courage and forms the battle line again while the leaders return and weep before the LORD. Then in the evening, they once again inquire of the LORD, saying, “Shall we again draw near to fight against our brothers, the people of Benjamin?” The LORD says, “Go up against them.” (23) Again, we would assume that the LORD will give them victory, but they experience another defeat when 18,000 men are killed. Now a tenth of their army has been destroyed.

After these two defeats Israel is humbled and they respond differently than the previous two times. They all go up before the LORD at Bethel, they weep before Him, they sit before the LORD and fast until evening. Then they offer up burnt offerings and peace offerings before the LORD. (26) Then they inquire of the LORD through Phinehas, saying, “Shall we go out once more to battle against our brothers, the people of Benjamin, or shall we cease?” This time He answers them, saying, “Go up, for tomorrow I will give them into your hand.” (27-28)

Question: What are we to think of this repentance? Was it true repentance or not? We’ll consider this more next week. But we can say that in Judges 19-20 we’ve learned that our sin nature is quick to depend upon worldly wisdom and temporal comforts as prescriptions for spiritual problems. We are so slow to apply the biblical prescriptions to our sin and submit to the LORD and to obey His Word.

Israel Wins the Battle But Shows No Mercy (29-48)

In verses 29-48 we see that Israel wins the battle against the Benjaminites, but in the heat of the moment they do not have the wisdom to show their brothers mercy. They lack wisdom so they make rash vows and in their rage they almost wipe out an entire tribe in Israel. It is only after months go by that they begin to weep over this calamity. (21:1-3)

Verses 46-48 describe just how soundly Benjamin was defeated, “So all who fell that day of Benjamin were 25,000 men who drew the sword, all of them men of valor. But 600 men turned and fled toward the wilderness to the rock of Rimmon and remained at the rock of Rimmon four months. And the men of Israel turned back against the people of Benjamin and struck them with the edge of the sword, the city, men and beasts and all that they found. And all the towns that they found they set on fire.”

It is really hard to read about what happens to the tribe of Benjamin by their brothers when in verses 18-28 we saw what appeared to be repentance by Israel. One would have thought that a repentance like this would have inclined the hearts of Israel to show mercy to Benjamin; and yet, they do not do this. When Israel appeared to be repenting they never asked the LORD how to pursue justice with mercy. The process of repentance in vv. 18-28 did not express itself in how they applied justice towards their brothers in Benjamin. Israel was right about the sin that the men in Gibeah has been done, but they acted wrongly towards the sinners. Those who were forgiven much should have loved much, but they didn’t. They are fresh off an experience with God, but they are still doing what is right in their own eyes. (Romans 12:1-2)

Consideration: Over my lifetime I have heard countless Christian events advertise themselves to be a ‘life changing event’, but in the end the effects of these things fall far short. So many events in our day may fall short of what we intended just as what happened in vv.18-28 seems to have been very religious but bore little spiritual fruit. It may be, that we expect to much to happen when we are not really willing to make Jesus LORD and obey His Word.

Consideration: My friends, as we gather here together each week let us not just go through the motions without being moved in the heart. It is so easy for all of us to gather as they did in vv.18-28 and have some spiritual experience that lacks the real power of God to transform our lives.

2 Chronicles 28 is another example of this sort of thing happening in Israel. On that occasion the LORD gives Judah into the hand of the king of Israel who struck Judah with ‘great force’. In this battle 120,000 men were killed in one day. (5-6) After this, the men of Israel took captive 200,000 women, sons, and daughters with very much spoil and brought them back to Samaria as slaves. (8)

Israel did not display mercy towards their brothers and they were guilty of great sin. On this occasion the LORD sent a prophet to confront Israel, saying, “Behold, because the LORD, the God of your fathers, was angry with Judah. He gave them into your hand, but you have killed them in a rage that has reached up to heaven. And now you intend to subjugate the people of Judah and Jerusalem, male and female, as your slaves. Have you not sins of your own against the LORD your God? Now hear me, and send back the captives from your relatives whom you have taken, for the fierce wrath of the LORD is upon you.” (9-11)

Doesn’t this make you wonder: Where was the prophet who could speak to Israel in Judges 20? Did God send one but they would not listen? Or were there hearts so inclined to doing what was right in their own eyes that God simply gave them over to these desires?

 My friends, God cannot overlook our sins; and yet, He is just to forgive us of our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness when we turn to Him and confess our sins to Him. He can do this because He poured out His divine wrath upon Jesus, His only begotten Son, so that we could be justified, made righteous, and forgiven. God, in Christ, shows us the best example of justice which provides mercy, kindness, and love to sinners. And our response to this is to surrender to Him as LORD and obey His Word. The evidence of this saving faith in the LORD will be expressed in our love, mercy, and kindness to those around us.